And irl ttjbbs



Aug. 25, 1925.

H. GOLDSMITH ET AL I NFLATABLE ARTI CLE Filed April l5, 1925 ,QMS/df by. my

Patented Aug. 25, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HUGO GOLDSlVIITH, OF CINCINNATI, OI-IIO, AND IRL yT'U'IBBS, OF SUPERIOR, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNORS '10v THE I. GOLDSMITI-I SONS COMPANY, 0F CINCINNATI, OHIO, A

CORPORATION OF OI-IIO.

INFLATABLE ARTICLE.

Application led April 15, 1925.

To all whom. t may concern.'

Be it known that we, HUGO GoLDsMrrrI and IRL TUBBs, citizens of the United States, residing in the cities of Cincinnati, county of Hamilton, and State of Ohio, and Superior, county of Douglas, State of Wisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Inflatable Articles, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description., reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specication.

Our invention relates to the general class of inflated articles, and particularly to the class of inflated articles comprising inner resilient members usually called bladders and outer coverings usually made of leather or the like. More particularly our invention relates to foot balls, basket balls, volley balls, soccer balls and the like, with which it is customary for players on sides to engage in contests.

It is the object of our invention to provide for such contests, balls, constructed with inner bladders in which valves are disposed which will permit the inflation of the bladders to any desired pressures, and to secure flaps about the valves to hold the valves in predetermined position with relation to holes in uniformly closed covers through which the valves will be exposed for inflation or deflation, as desired. Briefly, therefore, our invention has for its object the provision of laceless foot balls, basket balls, volley balls, pushballs and the like.

In the prior art it has been customary to provide outer coverings for such balls with slits therein which expose tubes on the inner bladders through which the bladders may be inflated and in which the slits may be secured with lacing or hooks in such a way as to draw the sides of the slits together. The difficulties and objections of such structures have been, in the first place, that they never enabled the inflation of the balls to positive predetermined pressures; secondly, that they seldom could be inflated and laced up to allow smooth surfaces over the laced slits in the outer covers, and finally that the valves which usually were open tubes could not be secured tightly, so that frequent reinflation was required, which during the playing with the balls, resulted in the hardness or softness of the balls being` a constantly variable quality.

serial No. 23,373.

With balls of our construction it should be possible to definitely establish with the boards controlling the rules, that the balls played with should be inflated to a certain definite pressure. which may be easily tested before a game so that the participants will be sure that the ball with which they are playing has been inflated to the regular standard.

Referring to the drawings in which we have illustrated the embodiment of our in- .'ention as applied to a .round ball such as a basketball: 4

Figure l is a perspective view of the laccless ball.

Figure 2 is a cross section considerably enlarged taken along the lines 2--2 in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a cross section in a similar position to that of Figure 2, with a different type of valve employed.

Generally indicated at 1 is the outer cover of the ball which as noted, will usually be made of leather. The leather is cut into sections and stitched as shown at 2. Within the outer cover is the bladder 3 usually made of resilient rubber. A hole 4 permits the insertion of the valve 5 which in the illustration shown 1n Fig. 2' is one of the well known Schraeder type, although other types will serve equally as well. Instead of being secured at the outlet side of the valve, as is customary in pneumatic inner tubes of tires for automobiles or the like, the valve is secured to the bladder at the inlet side of the valve so that the stem projects within the bladder instead of being disposed outside of it. The valve stem is threaded as shown and the locking plates 6 are adapted to secure the valve to the bladder. Instead of binding the two locking plates together on opposite sides of the bladder a leather flap 9 with a hole in it of equal size as that in the bladder is disposed on the outer side of the bladder so that when the locking members are drawn together an air tight seal is made between the inside of the bladder and the outside of the flap. The flap is then stitched as shown at 7 to the outer cover member and a hole 8 in the outer cover provides an easy access to the valve for inflation or deflation as desired.

Modification of the particular structure described will readily occur to those skilled in this art. For example, the inner locking member need not be threaded on the stem but it may be an integral projecting flange from the side of the stem. Also as noted, anytype of valve which does not leak may be used instead of the Schraeder type. Another valve type, of rubber construction, is shown in Figure 3 in which type the stem 5 is vulcanized directly to the inner bladder so that no locknutis needed. The outer locknut is, in this type, an integral rubber flange on the stem so that both the locknuts 6 are avoided. The joint Where the flap 9 is seamed about the valved stem need not be tight as the stem is an integral piece With the bladder and the only Way air can leak out is through the valve. This is prevented in this type of valve by air pressure Within the bladder pressing against the turned down Walls of its stem and thus holding the air passage through the stem closed.

Vith the aperture providing access to the valve for inflation there is no necessity of any other apparent opening in the cover and the stitching 4may consequently be done so that the ball appears uniformly closed throughout all of its seams. The outersur` face is therefore entirely uniform `and the rebound of the ball is not subject to variations because of a closing flap lproducing an irregularity in the'cover.

,ber and means for maintaining the apertures in permanent alignment.

2.*In a covered inflatable ball, the combination of a cover formed of stitched sections of covering material, and a bladder having a valve therein, said bladder secured immovable to the inside of the covering material, and said covering material having a hole therein of a size only sufficient to eX- lpose the valve, for inflating.

3. An inflatable ball having a covering formed of pieces of covering material stitchedcompletely together, a bladder Within the ball secured immovably in place thereinthe covering having a hole intermediate the juncture of the stitched, sections, a valve in jthe bladder held against said covering about 'the hole, and the hole being of a size merely tomake the valve accessible to an inflating device.

f lHUGO GOLDSMITI-l.

" IRL TUBBS. Y 

